Growing Pains

We had exchanges on Wednesday and Thursday and....sister Bodine was with me!!!! It was so fun. Everyone does missionary work a little differently and it's always fun to see how people do it. When she contacts people there is like a circle of love and the spirit that surrounds her and the people we are talking to it's so cool.

Sister Bodine challenged me to write down something everyday, something that I did good that day, and then at the end of the transfer pull them out and look at how "far" I've come. She said, "We can't see where we want to go, if we don't know where we are or where we have been" which I loved. It's not like I think I'm the worst missionary ever. It's just that I don't recognize what I do well. Partly in fear of getting a big head... and also I think it has a lot do with my athletic background--sprinting. One is constantly trying to figure out that one little thing that you're doing wrong so you can fix it and get a faster time.

I've been trying to do it for the last week (writing things down) It's actually really hard! We also committed a member to do it, which I think will really help her. I encourage everyone! :)

ahah I am just looking in my journal. I drew a picture of a fruit fly....we have tons of them. It is disgusting. It's not like our apartment is really dirty. We just have apples and tomatoes on the counter (I started putting the bananas in the fridge).

Okay, so I've been thinking about being a consecrated missionary and the scripture "whosoever shall loose their life shall find it..."

Sometimes it feels like my relationship with the Savior is decreasing. Sister Mendenhall said there was a time she felt like that on her mission, "it's not that you've lost your relationship with the Savior but you start focusing less on yourself and more on your investigators."

This is what I wrote for October 18....I just want your thoughts on it.

Today was weird. I just started to realize how I'm losing who I am out here. I just feel like I'm me because I want to be consecrated. I'm still trying to figure out what consecrated means.  But like stuff I used to do--write music, think about my family, Tanner, err really anyone. Home is like a dream. When friends like Corrie tell me they have been thinking of me, it's kinda weird. The scripture...whosoever shall loose their life shall find it..rings in my head, while I am writing this. Today I realized that my testimony of the Savior--more like my relationship with him--feels like it is decreasing. I envy Tanner for still being able to be "Tanner" (writing music, sending cute lovey things) but it still sounds like he is being a "good" missionary and his testimony is ever growing. Idk I just kind of miss little things like writing songs. It sounds dumb but I do. I miss talking about love and thinking about it.

I guess the question is, how much can I bring from home? Perhaps it is a spiritual endeavor I'll have to figure out. I just want to know soon before it's too late!

Today wasn't a bad day. There was outward success. I guess just inward failure.

Night!

I miss little parts of Samantha. Like how she writes music about love.  ahah and just thinking about people like Cole or Tanner or cousins. The world back home seems like it never happened. I guess I 'm just trying to figure out "becoming consecrated." On Saturday night and Sunday morning it was tough because I just wanted to go home. Because I felt the love and excitement of a Savior more there and I could do those little things I miss.

Okay don't get worried just wait.

So I decided to fast Saturday night because I knew I needed strength from the Lord. I realized I had become exhausted doing this work using only my strength and I needed to let the Savior help me in the work. I knew that fasting could help me depend on the Lord. So for breakfast I feasted on the word and read the weekly letter from President Clayton and
Grandpa's letter. President Clayton talked about conference....

I LOVED CONFERENCE!! Sorry I didn't talk much about my favorite things but I really love this thought from it). President Uchtdorf commented about gaining a testimony and said "The process of gathering spiritual light is the quest of a life time..spiritual truth will fit your heart and bring light to your spirit...the Savior promised that If you seek , you will find."

I am looking for light and a full heart at this time of discouragement. I must seek! then I thought about the quote "Feast upon the words of Christ" and I was lead to 2 Ne 32

Feast on the word, and it will tell you what you should do. (It will help me know how to have Christ in the work). If you still can't understand it is because ye ask not (don't pray), Neither do ye knock (read scriptures).

Pray always.  If you pray first, he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that they performance may be for the welfare of they soul.

That last part of the scripture meant so much to me. Being "consecrated" is what I have been so stressed about. But if we pray before our labor he will consecrate our performance (our mission).

When the scriptures say pray, it's not just telling god everything and then hanging up. It is having that CONVERSATION with God. When we have a conversation he can tell us what we need to change, what we are doing well, among so many other things. By praying first we can know that what we are doing is what the Lord would have us do because he has confirmed it to us in our prayer.

I don't know if any of this in making sense....but it was just so awesome. My soul was wavering and I was hungry for the spirit and I was fed. All the questions and thoughts that I had were soothed. Not everything was answered and some things just stopped bugging me for the time. I testify to you that We must TURN to him in time of need and NOT away. He wants to help us. Whenever I turn to Christ for Strength when hard times hit, my sadness and pain is remedied.

Love you all!!

Tell grandpa thank you so much for his letter I loved it! And I loved Grandma Reeves letter about believing Christ. Tell them that I always tell people my grandparents were missionaries in Pakistan when I find out they're from there. It is so fun:)

Grandma Stoddard: I have been getting ALL your letters!! They are the highlight of my P-day. Thank you so much. I am so happy to hear that grandpa is doing better.

I got a letter from Sister Hollingshed , it was so sweet. Let her know I received it

I always think about being a Good example for Jeffrey. It's great. Thanks Dad.

Onward, Ever Onward

Sam and Sister Mendenhall Teaching English

This week was a great week! We had Canadian Thanksgiving yesterday. We are teaching a less active member (less active because her husband won't allow her and her children to go to church).  She is separated but not divorced because she doesn't have the money to get divorced. He still checks up on them, so they still have to hide the Book of Mormon. Talk about the blessings we have. We can practice our religion freely without getting beaten/abandoned. Her two daughters are investigators because they never got the chance to be baptized. Pray that things will work out! The mother's name is Helana. She is from Sweden and ran away from home at 17 because her mom was a pretty strict Mormon and being a teen, she didn't like that. She got married in Canada and he turned out not being good. She loves the church now. Her daughters are Electra and Acrieve. We taught them the Restoration and then had lasagna!

Then Sister Mendenhall had the great idea of inviting Ricardo (a recent convert who is fantastic but a little lonely) to go out to dinner. So we got Greek food! I got Vegetarian Souvlaki. The roatsted potatoes had a Tomato-like sauce on top that was really good. I had a typical greek side salad. I really liked the dressing...any ideas of what it was? It had feta cheese and the dressing we had was oil based. I want to mimic it. So that was our Thanksgiving! There was a really pretty church down by the Greek Restaurant.  I wanted to go in it soooo bad. haha someday! I'm not sure how the name tags and being in their church would "look" though. Of course, we wouldn't be procelyting in the church, I just thought it was beautiful. Maybe we'll go have to go in on a P-day.

Okay so I have a terrible memory...Soo I'll try to recount some highlights of the week.

We dropped by Ahab's place and only his wife and K. and young 3 yr old were home (they call him the devil; it's pretty funny). The wife was really nice and let us in. We began with a prayer and committed her to say the closing. Then we started taking about the role of prayer in her life which she said has really helped her when she felt depressed. She really misses Turkey. The custom is that they feed any guests that enter the home so she started making tea, which we declined, so she got us Canada Dry and Cookies. Then Ahab came home! 

He sat down with us and she left and started making food in the kitchen! She started making tea again and we told her we could only have herbal tea.  We tried to explain it.  Ahab, after hearing us trying to explain why don't drink tea, asked "so we are sinners?!" It was kind of awkward. Anyway, we read the introduction to the Book of Mormon with him. The lesson was kind of sporadic because of the movement and cooking etc. She fed us cucumbers, toasted bread, and eggs. It was really nice. When Sister Mendenhall would talk I would stuff my face because I didn't want to make her feel bad. At the end of the lesson they offered to give us a ride home.  We explained to them that there had to be an adult female in the car so the whole family got in the car and 9 at night and took us home.  That was really nice of them. They invited us back, but unfortunately had to cancel because of the long weekend. Ahab keeps hinting that he doesn't have time for religion right now but he will in November. (He is involved in construction, and they are really busy right now trying to get everything finished). We will convince him that he has time. I really really want to go back and teach a really really simple Gospel of Jesus Chris and show a Mormon Message.

We dropped by a less active this week.  We hadn't met her before. We knocked on the door and this lady yells "Who is it?!" 

"The sisters!" 

"Oh! I'm in the shower. Let me rinse off!" So then she came to the door in her robe and we sat down on the couch. She proceeded to tell us about her period, her doctor's appointment and E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. I couldn't help but smile and think about writing home. She probably took like three breaths the whole time we were there.  She was talking so fast and so much. She is a big black lady from England. She has the most energy of anyone I've ever met. You just can't help but smile. We asked her about her conversion, and why she hadn't been back to church, etc. Man, I just can't describe how funny the experience was. She said a lot more but it's probably not super appropriate. Anyway, I don't think she is quite there, but she is really nice!

More of the English Class. Apparently, Sam has become a lefty.

On Saturday it was "Day in a life of a missionary" where members are supposed to follow us around and take pictures of "missionaries in action." The event wasn't super organized for a number of reasons and so I don't think it was a huge success. The goal was to flood social media with pictures, comments, testimonies, and explanations about missionary work. It was good to do it, so now we can hopefully hold one in the future and know how to organize it a bit better. However, the day was a great day for us. We met one less active who fed us (she always feeds us, and she starts the meal right when we get there). Anyway, I could explain more about what happened and such but I'll just say this: date and marry converted members of the Church. I never realized how much the family is affected by marrying a truly converted member. In young women's they tell you not to date members. I always thought it was mean. But that advice will save us from so much heartache in the future. I have seen so many families adversely affected by not marrying a converted member, in hopes that they will change in the future. I can't accurately address this issue so perhaps I will write a letter where I can formulate my words. Always be friends with everyone! Just be careful who you fall in love with. I have seen the negative affects of not marrying in the temple/not marrying a converted member in the temple.

We went with a Less Active member to knock on the door of a potential investigator, Daphne. I remember meeting her on the street, which is pretty rare for me to remember because I was so happy she spelled her name like you do, Daphne!  A young man answered the door and upon seeing our name tags, he said  "Ah Jesus! I like you guys." Then Daphne came to the door and agreed to let us in. My jaw about dropped to the floor when she said we could come in. (We didn't even have to beg!). So we went in and found that Brody was his name and that Daphne was his friend. We started out with HTBT. We asked them How they had seen God in their lives. Brody about jumped out of his chair he was so excited to tell us his experience. He told us how he was very involved in gangs, robbing people, drugs, and violence. He said that he used to be a very hateful person because of the ways his father and brothers treated him. He told us how his younger brother died and how that wrecked his world. When he was younger, his mom always tried to get him to read the Bible but he would chuck it across the room.

One night he told his mom, "I need help. I'm either going to kill someone or kill myself." He explained how he kneeled down and prayed mightily to the Lord for help/forgiveness. He said the moment he got done with his prayer he felt free. He felt so much joy. "When people say Jesus don't exist, I take it pretty personal. He saved me. I know he does." He said that right before he we came to the door he was telling Daphne that he wanted to find a church. Then we came. He says he knows God answers prayers because every time he prays, something good happens. Daphne's boyfriend's mother just died and she has been trying to console him. His name is Matthew. She has so much faith and hope that things will work out, it's great.

As they were telling us this, I just felt that we needed to teach them the Plan of Salvation. I was worried Sister Mendenhall wasn't getting the same vibes but then she pulled out plan of salvation pamphlet so it was great!!! We taught them the plan of salvation using these cute pictures which he really liked because he is a visual learner. I'll have to take a picture of them sometime! Brodie ate up the plan of salvation. After about every two sentences he'd blurt out "yeah, yeah I agree."

It was so great. He said, "Man, I am going to that kingdom (pointing to the Celestial Kingdom). I know he can!! I know that the atonement can wipe away all wrongs when the heart of the sinner is truly repentant. The Savior WANTS to forgive. We just have to let him. God Loves us. He wants to bless us. We just have to accept Him and his blessings. While I was listening to Brodie, I couldn't help but see the Mormon Message people filming him telling his story. It is truly powerful. I hope they do.

Dad asked what our typical P-day is like. Here it is! We get up and shower and clean and put our laundry in.  Then we eat, do personal study, get our laundry, do companion study, write letters, go grocery shopping, and then either eat and go to the chapel for sports, or go shopping for things like a coat, etc.  And then I get to play the guitar and write songs-- I prefer doing the latter for P-day but Sister Mendenhall really likes going to play basketball. :) I hope we get to go to a museum/some gardens soon for P-days. No dad, we don't take naps: we would never have time for that! Sometime I think it'd be fun to watch Mormon Messages and just eat popcorn.

I think I have gained 3 pounds!! Here is the problem. I'm rarely satisfied! I'm never full! I feel like the only thing that helps me feel full is if I eat wheat/sugar.....I think that 1 lb has gone to my face and 2 lbs to my hips. This is an issue. Help? has it got something to do with my blood sugar?

When we don't have a successful day, it doesn't really bug me. I don't know if that is a problem? Sister Mendenhall gets pretty down about it.

I haven't had huge perfectionist issues on the mission so don't worry! Just like...if something is in my control such as (it is about 10 minutes before our time limit is up for a dinner appointment) They ask us if we want dessert. Of course I want dessert. But then I realize the time. The righteous thing to do would be to say no, and explain the time deal. But sometimes I say yes! then we notice that the day isn't as great. Sooooo on occasion I struggle with the command "Be ye therefore perfect" and not taking ourselves too serious. Does that make sense?

Love you all! I know that the Atonement is real!!!

Sister Reeves

At a dinner appointment with the Ward Mission Leader's, Brother Lim.

Brother Lim was kind of enough to send us an email, telling how much he thought 

of these two sisters.  I feel awkward sharing the entire contents of the email but I 

will share the following tidbit.  Of Sisters Reeves and Mendenhall, Brother Lim wrote,

"Their endearing smiles and genuine love seem to cut through the less active’s defenses. Those attributes just can’t be taught in the MTC."  We were grateful that Brother Lim was thoughtful enough to take time to write us.  All of us need to learn from that.  

As Marjorie Hinckley wrote, "Never suppress a generous thought."

Don't Blink Your Eyes

"Don't Blink your eyes! Refers to what Sister Mendenhall always says.

time flies on the mission!, so i drew a picture of it. "

Okay! So I will first answer the questions about the investigators....

We have a bunch of baptismal dates but none of them have been answering phone calls. So it is hard to ask you to pray for them/give specifics when I have given up on them myself and moved on. Perhaps I am the problem? Lack of Faith? 

We dropped SJ. Duval and Danika.  Ricardo and Gerrald are both from China! We can't get in contact with them but we VERY SIMPLY taught what the 5 principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, keeping commandments). They seemed to eat it up....but like I said we can't get in contact. Marvin flaked so we haven't met with him. Caroline and Shadyane....haven't met with them either! UGh! However, the most unlikely of investigator--Maria, Samirra, and Mila--we have consistently met with. Unfortunately, they have many unmet physical needs and have lost every single book/pamphlet we have given them, etc. 

They are from Romania. I know some are illegally here.... Futita Begs at the subway, sends money home to her kids in Romania, and is mad at religion because of the corruption it has caused in her country.  At this time in her life I don't think she is ready. She speaks English the best. Maria is a Christian and has so much faith! She is awesome. There definitely is a language barrier. We taught them the plan of salvation and it was great. Although there is a language barrier, we knew they understood. Maria thinks that her church teaches the plan of salvation the same way....we said they likely didn't but because of the language barrier it made it hard to explain but at the end of the lesson she asked the perfect question. It was something along the lines of: "Which church do I have to Join to get to the celestial kingdom? Which church has authority? Why is your church different?" So we left a restoration pamphlet and we are teaching that Wednesday! Pray that they will get to church! They are cool. Before I came to canada I imagined that everyone would have clean living conditions....not soo...haha sometimes I feel like I am in the deep south...but the people are great! We are going to clean Hosnee's house tomorrow:) When I see cockroaches crawling up the walls....I just have to pretend that there is NO POSSIBLE way that those things are getting in my hair or in the food.

This week we had two awkward situations where our investigators wanted married counseling. We were teaching one couple and the husband starts arguing with the wife because he wants to learn more about Christ and she only wants to believe in Alllah. The second was at our "English as a Second Language" session. I asked a little girl, "Do you like going camping with your dad?" to which she replies, "HE's not my DAD. He is Antonio." Later on the mother  tells us that Antonio doesn't want to get married and then Antonio says his wife is the one who doesn't. It was so random. It is as if because we are missionaries people think we know how to help their marriages....we just kinda shrug it off...because we shouldn't be giving counseling or we'll say something generic and sorta off topic like "Temples are great! We can be with our families together forever there!"

General conference was awesome. Saturday I had lots of questions answered. Sunday was good but not as amazing as saturday. I think It was because I wasn't exactly obedient.  I didn't start my Personal study at 8, rather like 8:05, because I was taking muffins out of the oven. I had the thought that I should put the muffins in later but I ignored it. Sooooo I felt bad after and I was terrified that I wasn't going to get anything out of conference and lose my opportunity to receive revelation. So I was saying sorry but then I felt like I was being like the Nephites, who, in 4th Nephi or Mormon,  after have lost the battle, are crying unto the Lord but not because they are forsaking their sins but because they are sorry they can't have joy in wickedness--as if I was only sorry because I knew I was loosing blessings.  Shortly thereafter, instead of having companionship study, we taught a lesson to a man in our apartment. I prayed that if I was forgiven I'd feel peace in my heart. Finally at the end of the lesson I did a bit. ughh ha this letter is awful! I know you guys read them for fhe....this one isn't like lifting. I'm sorry. I'll do better next week. :(

"I am working on drawing."

We have another investigator named Halil! He  accepted a baptismal date. He is a truck driver and his family lives in the states. They are originally from Albania. His closing prayer was so tender and he had tears in his eyes it was so sweet. Hopefully he reads a bit from the BOM during his drive to BC this week! the lesson was 1hr and a 1/2!!!! (They are supposed to be at most 45 minutes...he just asked a lot of questions! ah!)

After the Sunday session we went to a less active named Gladys [note from editor--name removed]. She became a member like 10 years ago and was active for 2 months. Then her controlling/schizophrenic husband took her out the the country and she couldn't go to church. Thus, her knowledge of the gospel is very limited. We are going to teach her all the new member lessons. She gave the sweetest prayer at the end of the lesson. She needed a lot of help, but you could really feel the spirit while she was praying.:)

Okay, back to Saturday. A couple weeks ago I met a guy on the bus named Ahab [note from Editor: name changed to protect this person]. He was a former ESL student! I asked him if he wanted to go on a church tour and he said yes! I called him on Friday to invite him to general conference, to which he responded that he wanted to come and learn more about Jesus.  He said that he felt like his religion was conflicting and wrong. He and his son came!! It was a miracle--something we weren't expecting. I have never felt so anxious at a conference session before! All I wanted was for him to have a spiritual experience and understand what was being said.

After the session we talked with him and learned a bit more about his background. He is Islamic and from Turkey (P.S. DON'T POST ANYTHING ONLINE ABOUT HIS FAITH NAME ETC. Some converts from the Muslim faith lose everything and their lives are in danger when they convert. One sad event happened a couple years ago. A man who converted from islam and the missionaries mom posted a picture of him on FB. The Iranian government found out, cut off all support and if he returns to his country he will be killed. He can't see his family ever again.)

"Last P-day we got together and played games!"

"I made Black Bean Soup! So good, I was crying 

because of the onions and mascara went EVERYWHERE."

"For ESL we played a game and had a potluck...it was good....

I tried every doughnut....(I just cut off pieces....;)"

Anyway :) We taught the restoration. The son K. [note from editor: name removed]. who is 14 isso ready to get baptized. He was saying how even if his dad can't come to church he will ride his bike. He was so sweet. Ahab talked about how he wants to get back to live with the father and he knows that can only be done if he is in God's church. ahhhhh and guess waht. the lesson was 2 hrs!! The time flew. Ahab and his son never got antsy and just kept asking questions and I didn't even realize it had been that long. The spirit was great. 

He told me that If I ever needed help that we could ask him....especially becuase I was an American....haah that was kinda scary/funny. They are sooooo cool! It's kinda funny that all of our investigators this week are from Eastern Europe. 

I met two Frenchies on the Bus!! Every time I talk with the I realize how awful my french is...haha but they love it when I... and i reallllly love it.

Yesterday on the bus I was talking to this girl about the Book of Mormon and how we can ask God if it is true, etc. While I was talking to her I could feel the eyes of the guy sitting next to us. I sort of ignored him because I thought it was probably some anti who was going to ruin everything. When I finished speaking, he began to speak.  I cringed, bracing for him to spewing anti stuff.  

"Sorry to interrupt," he began, "but I just have to say I know this book is true. Four years ago the missionaries came up to me and told me the same thing that she is telling you. I had questions, but I read and prayed. I know what this missionary is telling you is true."

To say the least I was FLOORED. Then my bus stop came. I picked my jaw off the ground, shook his hand, asked him his name, and hurried to get off the bus so I didn't miss my stop. It was so cool. Then Sister Mendenhall asked if he was a member. The thought didn't even cross my mind!!!!! Ahhhh I hope he is....because I didn't get any info of his!!! Half my brain was in the clounds and my jaw on the ground. He did have a white shirt and tie on though....so  maybe he was coming from conference...?! :) So that was like my favorite experience this week.

Some questions that I had for conference were:

• How can I have more hope? Preisdent packer answered it when he spoke about how the Savior is Hope and we must learn of the savior.

• How can I teach children the gospel? Teach them how to pray!!! (I loved that comment from...I can't remember...but It reminded me of my own conversion experience, I learned the gospel through my mother who taught me the importance of prayer.)

I have so much more to tell you about my lovely answers but I will have to do some next week!!! ahhh Conference was so good!! 

Love,

Sister Reeves

The sweetest lady in the ward named, Sister Gayle gave us some clothes. :) 

Ah i wish you could meet he! She has the most incredible testimony, she reminds me of 

Grandma Helen and Grandma Reeves. She is constantly stopping people and sharing the gospel. 

Her prayers amazing! I imagine that the disciples of Christ prayed that way after 

Christ came to the Americas. 

A visit to the Temple, a Family Committed for Baptism, and Spicy Dishes

This week was Great! I'm not sure where to start! It's hard because my days sort of all mash together and I can't remember if something happened last week or this week. I got the letter from Grandma Stoddard! It was so sweet:) That is great to hear that Grandpa Stoddard is feeling well! Dad, I love what you said about how you could feel the physical manifestation of the prayers and faith of those praying for you. I especially felt that it my first week in the field. I would be down and then all of a sudden a BLAST of energy and love came and those "down" feelings flew a million miles away. It's hard to explain, but in short, prayers work. Heavenly Father IS listening. Have faith that he is, even when it doesn't feel like he is. We can use those moments,when it isn't answered the way we wanted, to OPEN our eyes and see how he is answering our prayer.

"..God is the greatest scientist in the universe, and he has complete control over all elements and matter. Prayer is our conduit, our access, to controlling those elements."

That was a cool quote by My Dad:) Although he does control all things, sometimes rotten stuff happens here in this life, such as loved ones passing. We have to trust that even though God COULD have kept it from happening, he see's the big picture, while we don't. He has far greater plans and blessings for ourselves and those individuals than we could imagine.

My companion is from Alberta, Canada! She has been out 15 months! She always says, "DON'T Blink your Eyes!" We exchange once a transfer! So that is super great! Next exchange I think one of the STL's will come to my area and my comp will go to theirs, which is terrifying because that means I actually have to learn which bus stops and which metro's are by the investigators houses etc.  [Note from editor: I assume that an STL is a some type of Sister leader]. Right now I sort of just follow Sister Mendenhall.......

Sister Mendenhall says that if she could give me a nickname it'd be "Trance." Because I am always caught in this trance....We will be walking down the street and then all of a sudden I look and Sister Mendenhall is wayyyyy ahead of me. "Coming, Trance?" haa I am like Walter Mitty in Canada. I tried explainng that to her....one she hasn't seen the movie and two....I don't think we are supposed to talk about movies...becuase I always get the cold hand when I do--which is hard because I'm always relating something to a movie I've watched!

Dad, I laughed while reading about Jeffrey's Stick Shift learning experience! It made me think back to my struggling times.

My personaly study was SO GREAT today.

Mom! So I was reading your letter for last week this morning and your thought abut how we need to diligently seek him with real intent struck me! Here is what I wrote:

"Wowza helman 12:2 rocks. My mom wrote explaining that it is not alwas easy to share the gospel. We would become lazy and stop studying to find the answer if it was aways given to us. Helaman 12:2-3 goes along nicely with that thought.

2 Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocks and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art; sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; softening the hearts of their enemies that they should not declare wars against them; yea, and in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people; yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One—yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity.

3 "Except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflicitons...they will not remember him"

This weeks attribute is Hope! So I started reading "A priceless Heritage of Hope" by President Eyring.  (AHHHHHHHHH PS. WHO IS NOT SO EXCITED FOR GENERAL CONFERNECE!!!! I AM PUMPED!!!)

Okay back to the thougt. Here are some quotes I really like:

• "Every day and every hour you can choose to make or keep a covenant with God"
• "Choosing to keep or makea covenant with God, leaves an inheritance of hope to those who follow your example"

To those that aren't familiar with the LDS faith, a covenant is a two way promise with God. We promise to do something and in turn he blesses us. Go to mormon.org to learn more about covenants you can make and blessings you can receive.

So I thought. How is us keeping our covenants leaving an inheritance of hope?

When we keep our covenants, we treat other people (those to whom we might be examples) better and more lovingly because we are striving to be more like Christ.  They desire to have what we have (hope). They will desire to make covenants as well because they'll want to be like us and feel and understand what we do. They will want to have hope in their lives. When we live the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we have hope. Others can have it too.

We are teaching this lovely family, Caroline and Shadayne. I connect so well with Caroline because I feel like I have felt a tiny part of what she is feeling right now:  that God doesn't totally love her. I am so excited to teach her because through having faith and hope and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ I was able to know that He does love me! I sort of have been where she has been and I want her to know what I know now.

In the scriptures it explains that God's purpose is to give/help us have Joy. But I thought "well, he isn't fulfilling his purpose because there are some people who do not have joy." I had mistakenly correlated happy, smiling faces to joy.  A little conflicted, I began to research this idea of joy.  My journal entry reads (with excerpts from true to the faith) "Heavenly Father feels so strongly about protecting our moral agency that he will allow all His children to exercise it--for good and evil." Unfortunately, sometimes people are adversely affected by their agency. This makes God sad, but his eternal perspective allows him to understand that "whatever pain and suffering we endure in this life, regardless of it's origin" it is but a moment of our existence."

As mortals we rarely view our adversity with an eternal perspective. "We feel pain and anguish. But faith in our Heavenly FAther and His plan can be a source of inner strength through which we can find peace, comfort, and the courage to cope. As we put our faith and trust to work HOPE is born." This hope can comfort us in the face of adversity, give us strength and peace when there is every reason for doubt and anguish"

Conclusion: Perhaps this is what Joy is: the ability to Find solace in adveristy.

Unfortunately, we had to drop Eileen and Mike. Eileen is great! But becuase of health problems she has been counseld not to add something more to her plate....ugh. Ebony has been dropped and Lucy's family is in the area I exchanged in! But this week the Zone had the goal of baptismal dates and guess what! We invited and got 8 baptismal dates! So that is great. Pray for Caroline and her daughter, Duval and Danika, Mila and Futita and Maria Samirra, Ricardo and Gerrald, Marvin, and SJ! I will tell you about all of them next week. But real quick, Mom, remember that 14 yr old boy you taught on your mission who was amazing? That is Danika! It is super cool:)

We REALLLY want all of them to attend a session of conference!

Yesterday a guy came up to me and said "Hey! Do you remember me?" I sort of did:   we talk to sooooo many people a day, but it was blessing that I sort of remembered his face and two front teeth. I took a shot in the dark and said, "Are you Muhammad," which kind of is a running joke between my comp and because basically it seems like everyone that is from the middle east name is either muhammad or ____ Islam. So I had a 50/50 chance of being right. I was wrong it was. Rojo Islam. ha

Love you all!!  I am so excited for this week. I loved General Womens Confernece. I encourage all people to read it!!!! The obvious theme was temples! One missionary said that was because  the world is ending soon and we need to get as many peopple as we can back to the temple ha. Oh eyah!! WE went to the temple!! It was so great! We got up at 4:30 so I had a pretty hard time staying awake....hahaa But the celestial room was even brighter and welcoming than it has ever felt before. My friend Corrie explained that she felt the same thing. It's as if we are living lives in which our light matches and feels comfortable there. :)

I could sense that the girl for whom I went through also enjoyed it.

I was thinking about how to make Reeves family scripture study more meaningful--here is an idea. Give one person a responsibility to guide the study and to pray to receive inspiration about what to study that week, etc and then guide the study?

Food is great! I have made corn bread, enikorn bread (can I get more grain here?), muffins! We have had dinner apts. like 1 every week. Hosnee fed us! It was good. Indian food still has a hard time settling in my stomach, though. This time something in the food was so spicy that I was dying. Tears were coming out of my eyes and my stomach was screaming. Hosnee is soo great, though. She is trying to find you on Facebook. Look for her "Arzu Moon Zarin."  She kept putting more and more food on my plate. I tried to clean the plate....I felt so over-full with crazy spices. She felt AWFUL that it was spicy. I felt bad and tried to hide what was going on inside my stomach. Then her little girl jumps off the chair and falls and her plate flies, food going everywhere, a lot of which got on my white shirt.. so she felt more stress. But anyway, we talked about Elder Hollands Talk "Like a broken Vessel" which is amazing. She really liked it and said she wants to start working on getting back to the temple.

Sister Reeves